Items tagged with media

In a further step towards achieving its goal of absolute world sports dominance, the National Football League has announced that they will present a football game during the upcoming 2015 season that will air only on the Internet. Monday, at the annual league owner's meetings being held in Phoenix, the NFL made the decision to sell the rights to the October 4th contest between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills to a digital distribution company. The Week 7 game, one of three NFL matches that will take place in London during 2015, will begin at 9:30AM EST. For fans in the local Jacksonville...Read more...

Carriers far and wide have been angling to position themselves as more than just data and voice providers, and now, operators such as Verizon are starting to put their money up in order to prove the point. The company has this week confirmed that it will acquire EdgeCast, a content delivery network that has been around the block a time or two. The goal, according to Verizon, is to "enhance its video delivery and Web services capabilities," and it plans to integrate EdgeCast's "complementary capabilities to further improve and increase its ability to meet the exponential growth in online digital...Read more...

When a legend dies, much of the world feels it. But how often is that legend a piece of software? If you were into digital music when the MP3 file format first became popular, chances are good that you crossed paths with Winamp. Chances are even better that you called it home for a number of years. It was as de facto a piece of software as one could get; the Photoshop of music players, if you will. And now, it's soon to be killed off for good. On the official website, attempting to download the player will issue this warning: "Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available...Read more...

Internet TV is fast becoming a crowded field, but Intel’s not letting a little competition slow it down. The chip maker is opening offices in Los Angeles and New York so it is better placed to make deals with TV networks. Internet TV players like Roku have a multi-year jump on Intel, but that doesn't seem to be giving the chip maker pause. Set-top boxes like the Roku and Apple TV have given Internet services like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu (not to mention Apple’s own service) an easy way to reach customers’ TVs. With some customers bailing from costly cable and satellite TV subscriptions...Read more...

Clearly, URLs with missing letters are all the rage these days. Kidding aside, Rdio has been making quite the name for itself in the music streaming business, but it's obvious that there's plenty of demand (and money to be made) on the video front. So, an expansion is in order. After launching in 2010 with music at the forefront, the company has built up a library of 18 million songs. And now, it's previewing the next evolution of the company: Vdio. As you might expect, it's a new way to buy, rent, and share your favorite movies and TV shows with your friends, in real-time. For Rdio Unlimited users,...Read more...

We have a pretty strong sense of how the relationship works between the media and companies that make the products that get reviewed, but according to Dan Whitehead of Games Industry, that relationship has become rather strained when it comes to news outlets and video game companies. Whitehead wrote a piece discussing the flaws he sees with covering games these days, noting that he feels as though these companies are too heavy-handed when it comes to giving out reviewer’s guides and enforcing embargoes. He says that embargoes can seem arbitrary, and reviewer’s guides can seem condescending...Read more...

It's no secret that Intel is planning to get into the television and entertainment business in some way, but now it appears that the company is getting looser about introducing things pertaining to those goals. At the TV Connect 2013 event in London, Intel has launched a new reference design for Media Processors. The MSRD is both a hardware and software design kit for OEMs and system integrators that allow them to quickly develop Intel-based set-top boxes and media servers. Intel has pre-integrated components such as a media engine, broadcast stacks, virtualization, and motion control technology...Read more...

Who would've thought that a tiny, unheard-of media streaming box would really have a future? While the likes of Boxee hit a surge and then faded, Roku has seemingly nailed a sweet spot. Now, the company's introducing the Roku 3 -- the fastest, most powerful Roku player yet. It's a new flagship product, with a sexier design and plenty of new features. The remote now has a headphone port on it, enabling a more private aural experience for those watching on the couch. Additionally, the remote doubles as a motion-sensing game controller for playing games like Angry Birds Space. There's also a software...Read more...

In the world of streaming media (and streaming content in particular), Hulu has become a gigantic name -- right up there with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. And that's partly because of the huge names behind it. Both News Corp. and Walt Disney Company have a stake in Hulu, and according to a new report, the two giants are talking behind closed doors. About what? About a potential buyout. It seems that discussions are ongoing that could see either News Corp. or Walt Disney Co. buy one or the other's stake out, with control of Hulu going to whichever company did the buying. Each company owns about...Read more...

Western Digital is no stranger to the media streaming universe, and this week it's investing in that universe once more with a new set-top box. The new WD TV Play is priced to rival the low-cost Roku box, with a $69.99 MSRP providing a fairly stout amount of functionality. There's built-in Wi-Fi, of course, and portals for Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, VUDU, SlingPlayer, Spotify, Pandora and Facebook (amongst others). Customers can play content located on any computer or network attached storage that has a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) server, and content can be streamed at full 1080p resolution....Read more...

Intel is trying to break into the streaming content business -- again. At the AllThingsDigital media conference today, Erik Huggers, vice president of Intel Media, told assembled journalists that the company has been hatching a new idea for the TV space. "We have been working for (the past) year to set up Intel media, a new group focused on developing an Internet platform," Huggers said. "It's not a value play, it's a quality play where we'll create a superior experience for the end user." According to Huggers, the new streaming service will have ala carte options that allow customers to pick and...Read more...

Hate ads? Wish you could just skip 'em all, the Super Bowl notwithstanding? Get ready for your DVR. DISH just announced nationwide availability of the all-new Hopper DVR with built-in Sling whole-home HD DVR functionality. Outside of being able to placeshift content anywhere due to the integrated Sling capabilities, users will also be able to tap into DVR'd content through the DISH Anywhere app. With these features customers can watch their live and recorded home television content on Internet-connected tablets, smartphones and PCs at no additional charge. It'll also let users download DVR content...Read more...

Slowly but surely, the television is becoming just another place to watch content. Increasingly, savvy users are choosing to engage with content on mobile devices, and even notebooks. Now, Time Warner Cable is allowing its pay-TV subscribers to access a wealth of on-demand content from twctv.com, so long as you're surfing with a PC or Mac. The on-demand material was already available on the TWC TV app for iPad, but now, "certain" free and subscription on-demand content will be available via a Web browser. That amounts to over 4,000 on-demand TV shows and movies from 91 providers, metadata for that...Read more...

Twitter has been evolving fairly rapidly of late, likely because it's moving closer and closer to a legitimate business model with sponsored tweets and the like. This week, the social networking outfit has rolled out several enhancements that make it easier to view photos and videos on Twitter — in particular, on profiles and in search results. Viewers can now see larger photos right on the page; just click a photo from a profile page or in search results to see a larger version of that photo without leaving the page. On the video front, media galleries now include videos from Vine, YouTube,...Read more...